Norton Gets Top D.C. Priorities Funded (7/30/2010)

Norton Gets Top D.C. Priorities Funded

July 30, 2010

WASHINGTON, DC -- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today thanked the Senate Appropriations Committee for passing a D.C. appropriations bill that funds many of her top priorities and is free of anti-home rule social riders, such as the bans on D.C.'s use of local funds for needle exchange, medical marijuana and abortion for low-income women. The committee provided $35.1 million to fund Norton's DCTAG legislation, which provides up to $10,000 annually for D.C. residents to attend colleges and universities outside of the District of Columbia, and $382.296 million for Norton's major economic development project, the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) headquarters construction project at St. Elizabeths in Ward 8, the largest federal construction project in the country. This amount includes funding for construction, historic preservation mitigation, over $8 million for transportation infrastructure and $2 million for development on the East Campus. The Senate Appropriations Committee also provided $288 million for the DHS headquarters project in the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations bill.

The D.C. appropriations bill also provides $52.4 million for D.C. school improvement, including, $23 million for public schools and $20 million for public charter schools; $1.375 million for the D.C. National Guard; $10 million for housing for the homeless; $3 million for HIV/AIDS prevention; $25 million for the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority; and $217.783 million for the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia (CSOSA). The bill provides a total of $739 million in federal funds for the D.C. government, D.C. courts, CSOSA, and other D.C. entities, and D.C. will receive $2.611 billion in federal funds from grants, including reimbursements for such programs as Medicaid.

Although the Senate committee-passed D.C. appropriations bill does not include D.C. budget autonomy, Norton expects the historic budget autonomy provision included the D.C. appropriations bill passed yesterday by a House subcommittee, which would allow D.C.'s local budget to take effect immediately after it is approved by the city council and mayor, to be included in the final D.C. appropriations bill.